Day 1

hmmm, shall abbreviate my posts cuz i anticipate the lack of net connection for days.

bought my new watch at the airport before flying off, think it looks real good... :) its cheaper, no tax! flight was delayed again... some wing problem. well, glad they spotted it, or else, who knows what woulda happened. boring flight, at least not airsick cuz its not SIA, so no overwhelming sterile stench. interesting tour group, there are really nosy children around... god. then got this mum who loves to holler at her poor children and this old grandma who is... very slow. went to Dreamland, some theme park, thot tt the rides sucked... better than singapore, but tt's saying nothing. but there were lots of yummy and cheap food there, pigged out. :$

played this carnival game where u had to throw balls at cans and make them fall, was really hard, and the guy was very nice, helped me topple some cans and even gave me extra balls... but still didn't win anything. whoops... was better at throwing darts... but didn't win cuz u had to throw five in a row, only made 4... :( left after 2.5 hours... was supposed to go to a temple, but no one was interested, so we went for dinner instead. it was really sumptous, gosh, there were like 8 dishes? like wedding dinners... and every dish was great... food here is just dirt cheap. too bad it was chinese food, didn't getta sample local cuisine. oh yeah, the road network seems better than s'pore, with highways everywhere, train and soon to be subways, but traffic is bad. congestion, causing severe air pollution. Interesting there are so many Nike shops around... and they are mostly shared with adidas?!!

yups, so am at the hotel now, its not bad... uncle might be visiting us later... :P going pattaya tmr... ciao!

Day 2

today was kinda fun... had a nice breakfast in the mornining, ate a lot... the group with the slow grandma took forever to finish eating and were 20 mins late... how awful. anyway, went to this temple in the morning, the smoke was awful, but it contained this statue of a Buddha that was made of pure gold and is 550kg... so guess it was quite impressive. there were these pple who take pix of u as u enter and print them on plates, gosh, they make things fast, and they'd just hound u to buy them. didn't in the end though. then we went to take a boat, cruise on the river, to see the floating market. it sucked... had like 4 or 5 sampans? what market? a shop maybe. but i still enjoyed it cuz i gotta see much of bangkok from the river, and see how pple lived next to the river, using its murky water to wash their dishes and bath just so to save water. its interesting tt in bangkok, the old and run down buildings are commonly found next to these huge and tall commercial buildings. looks kinda weird. then we reached this stretch where there were lots of *sacred* fishes, pple would throw bread into the water and hundreds of fairly large fishes would surface and consume the food. after the cruise was... yet another temple. i swear there are thousands of these in thailand. looked around, and got cheated by some snake wielders. they made us take pictures with the snakes, and then told us the price... but whatever, wasn't tt ex, and the snake was quite fun... :P

next stop as a leather factory... never knew they used stingray to make leather. and its damn good, it feels so hard and is so durable. and it is very unique looking too! bought a leather belt ( ha bree! :P )... quite cheap compared to in singapore. had another terribly filling lunch, was a buffet, then headed off for pattaya. stopped at this tiger zoo! its quite impressive. there are 30 000 crocs there, reared from an original 500 over 10 years... but then the grounds are so huge, not surprised they can rear so many. there are also many tigers, and they are fed with pig's milk from a sow directly, so they live in harmony with pigs!!! radical. then there were these huge camels, which u can feed, and they are damn greedy, stretching their long necks towards u and grabbing yr food, then there were these 2 fighting, biting each other. we then watched a pig show. a pig called barbie did math. any one can shout out a problem, and the ans, and numbers used are from 1 to 6, it can answer. but after 4 qns, i think it got tired and got eerything wrong... poorthing. the tiger show was typical, jumping fire loops, balancing, etc. chimpanzee show was cute, they walked a tight rope thing, rode bikes and did hvand stands... then croc show was just scary. the crocs were damn fierce... kept trying to bite the trainer at first... was damn scary, could tell the trainer was damn scared himself at first when he slipped cuz the mouth was quite nearby. then he did many amazed things, kissing crocs, sticking head in the open mouth... was exciting. in the end, everything went well. can't help feeling a little sad for these creatures though, seems like they are enslaved. sure, they are fed, so its like a job, but its more like forced slavery? maybe tt's y they are kinda fierce...

checked in at a not so good hotel... but whatever. dinner was great, fed us like pigs... the food here is so oily. had lobster, suckling pig, prawns and crabs! yummy! ate and ate... somehow, my appetite has increased many folds after coming here... went shopping after tt. first time here... the stuff here are as ex as in singapore, well at least those things tt interest me. the handicraft are quite nice, so i bought some too. but stuff like levis and nike, well, they cost as much or more, am disappointed. well nick, i got u something, but u are coming here too, y did i? ;)

after shopping, the highlight of the day... Alcazar! Its a cabaret show... twist is that all the 'women' featured are transversites. was an interesting experience. the music and dance weren't fantastic... dance wasn't very complex, and coordinated. singing wasn't live, but well, tt's understandable, i mean cracking of voices is not reversible... ;) they were all very prettier, prettier than your average gal i must say... and they somehow managed to have very shapely bodies. maybe the result of surgery? i dunno, but the show was good cuz of the spectacular display of costumes, colors, lights and sets... i especially liked the various cabaret sets cuz the costumes were just great. and then of course, the show sets u thinking... the patronage of the place is very great, does it mean tt rites for such pple are improving? i dun think so... applause was always lukewarm, and pple seem scared of them. the attendance is high probably cuz many pple are just interested in this, its something new. but i think there was this item tt probably encapsulated the whole issue. this person performing was half guy and half woman. so if u see the profile from the left side, u see a guy, and when the person turns the other side, u see a girl. and finally, the person turns to face u, u see both. i guess they are just like tt, and they chose to be female... i think they deserve respect. at least they dared to do what they believe in, even knowing tt it'd just subject them to bias, more than what i can say for many pple...

did i mention pattaya is a v sleazy place? haha... all along streets u can see slutty girls waiting to be picked up by guys at bars. and yeah, u do see many caucasians picking up girls... ;)

Day 3

Feeling so vulnerable now... its been a great day, but i just can't shake off the feeling. sucks... some off the songs i'm listening to dun really help... :( arghhh, maybe yh will know what i'm feeling? sighs... and lately there is this particular christmas song tt just makes me feel sad whenever i hear it... hope i get over this soon... and all this sudden talk of marriage is annoying. grandmotherS, tour leader, and even the saleswoman?!! wth... do i look like i'm ready?

anyway, great day. morning we took a boat to coral island. did parasailing, which lasted for such a short time, but it was fun while it lasted. then did this jet ski like thingie, drove really fast and got completely soaked. then went into the water and just sat there talking to these 2 other guys in my tour group... water is very clear there... greenish blue, quite nice, and sand is so fine. waves are gentle cuz the water is shallow, water is lukewarm, stark contrast to aus. its sad tt the tourism industry in thailand is in full force now, there are just so many boats in the water, the air stinks, and i think, soon the water will be so polluted. when we went to look at corals through the glass boat, the amt of corals was just dismal... thanks to the oil from the boats.

after lunch, went over to visit yet another temple... then a beautiful orchid garden. then, went to watch some cultural performance, was quite good, but the weather was just sweltering hot... was dying... :S next up was the elephant show!! it was really good, was quite impressed. they threw darts, rode bikes, painted (ok, doodled), blew trumpets, played drums, carried pple with their trunks, kicked soccer, bowled, basketball... many many things... was just great. and it was really amusing to see them bow after each item and run towards the audience and snatch any bananas in their hands from them and gobble them up... some pple gave up and just surrendered theirs... :P greedy elephants!!

next, went over to the largest gem gallery in the world... was quite impressive, except they lacked the mother of all gems... diamonds... strange. was very nice to see all the nice gems and find out their prices. plus, there was a very nice education ride, and its far better and more entertaining than those silly entertainment rides in sentosa.

dinner was great, dfed us like mad once again... then was shopping. tt was fun, bought more stuff today, wanted to buy even more, but ran out of time... well good to have an early nite? haha...

Day 4

wow... was aching all over before my lovely bath... terrible amount of bus rides... was so awful, back and arm aching badly cuz i was trying to sleep. this hotel is really quite good compared to all the others we were in before tt... nice lighting, and the hotel itself really looks nice inside. its the tallest building in thailand too... too bad i'm not staying near the top, or i'd get a really nice view, nvm, tmr's breakfast is near the top... :) am pleased...

today, i just confirmed tt i can't stand pple from china... gosh, they suck. forever so kiasu, must snatch for seats, food at buffets, then forever shoving other pple. and this morning i saw this person who took lots of eggs, like 8, then saw another type further down and just dumped everything back... really felt like slapping him. just glared, and he mumbled something abt the eggs not being cooked... whatever. oh well, i guess its this 'competitiveness' tt allows chinese pple to stay alive in this world where their physical stature is... puny. singaporeans are kinda like tt too, sadly... shall not bother elaborating all the things pple did today...

left pattaya in the morning - thank god, i dun like the hotel. went to Safiari Park... its so huge. my gosh... watched 3 shows, dolphin show, james bond and some stunt show. no prizes for guessing which one i liked the most. was so sad i didn't get chosen to kiss the dolphin, but after seeing tt whales and not dolphins kiss u, i wasn't so sad anymore. the other two shows were really good in their special stunts and all their amazing explosions and stuff, but the story was crappy, at least what i could make out cuz everything was in thai? haha... but had fun la.

lunch was in this insanely large restaurant. it was just slightly less than the size of a soccer field... gosh, stuff in thailand are just so huge. haha, then took the bus thru the safiari, it was ok, very large as usual, 400 hectares, but then it didn't look very natural, so not tt good... reached bangkok, and went to the snake farm. had some performance, and this guy came around with a snake in his hand and its fangs bared at us... hurhur... next, he held out its forked penis and expected us to touch it for luck?!! well, someone did... :S

anyway, stuff here are really cheap, cuz they are kinda pirated... bought some orignal stuff, and some pirated... think i still prefer the orignal stuff though... ;) oh, saw the colorful light-up pen yh has... its really great, me and my sis both bought one... :D

okie, after dinner, checked in hear and went shopping... more of tt tmr... ;)